BURLINGTON – Cucumber and squash production is in full swing in the garden, but there is a key pest that can affect the yield and quality of the fruit. The striped cucumber beetle (Acalymma vittatumare) can be a destructive pest on all cucurbits (cucumbers, summer and winter squash, melons and pumpkins)[Read More…]
Columns
The Saga of the Sunapee Trout (a.k.a. Arctic Charr)
READING – If you wanted to see the Sunapee trout, you might be inclined to search in its namesake, New Hampshire’s Lake Sunapee. But this elusive fish has long been extirpated from the Granite State, and from neighboring Vermont, where it once lived in the Northeast Kingdom’s Averill Lakes. Sunapee[Read More…]
Classic Summer Day Friday; Thunderstorms In Store For Weekend
HARDWICK – What a week of challenges when it came to last week’s forecast! The big confounder was the eventual track of the remnants of tropical cyclone Debby, which ultimately made the difference in our overall risk for river and flash flooding. Our initial forecast had Debby’s center just south[Read More…]
Growing Community in the Garden
GREENSBORO – Greensboro’s Community Garden, with just seven raised beds and three in-ground beds, has already produced enough for multiple donations to the Hardwick Area Food Pantry (HAFP). Last Saturday alone, 30 pounds of fresh, organic produce was delivered to the food pantry. The donated harvest included lettuce, kale, snap[Read More…]
An Ant Hill Tale
EAST HARDWICK – During the epic Southwestern drought of the 1950s (my boss, a retired Presbyterian minister turned rancher, declared it Biblical), I spent a few months in the central Texas Permian Basin as a ranch hand. It was a whole new world to me. Everything, it seemed, had a[Read More…]
August in the Garden and Kitchen
CORNISH FLAT, N.H. – It seems to me that summer has been zooming by. Of course, I did plant many vegetables two to three weeks earlier than usual and crossed my fingers that demon frost would not appear. It didn’t. We’ve had a very sunny summer and my garden is[Read More…]
The Many Virtues of Mountain-Mint
NEW ENGLAND – Behind my garden of native plants, one scrappy perennial holds its own among the tangle of goldenrod stalks and blackberry brambles. Its swaying flowerheads buzz with a throng of insects: golden digger and great black wasps, bumblebees, sweat bees, butterflies, and beetles. This pollinator magnet is mountain-mint.[Read More…]
Heat, Humidity Keeps Atmosphere Unstable
HARDWICK – A mix of showers and thunderstorms intertwined with breaks of sunshine balanced out the weather between Wednesday and the weekend. The influence of heat and humidity kept the atmosphere unstable, leading to the frequent appearance of precipitation, occasionally enhanced by the passage of a front. No record-breaking heat[Read More…]
Library Addition Nearing Completion
HARDWICK – Grass is growing along the gentle slopes that grace the front of the Jeudevine, providing us with a glimpse of the new places we might soon sit with a good book or friend to pass a few idle moments. A small terrace sits immediately outside the entrance to[Read More…]
Suddenly, the Campaign was Going to be Fun
EAST MONTPELIER – The claim by CNN that the presidential debate of June 27 would be “historic” turned out to be right on the money, but hardly for the reason they expected. As the curtain mercifully dropped on the scene, my friend Bea turned toward me and said, well, I[Read More…]
Saving Seasonal Foods Without Canning
CABOT — It’s the heart of summer in Vermont, and vegetable gardens and orchards are overflowing. It’s wonderful (and healthful) to have a table full of local foods from your garden and neighboring farms. And all this great food doesn’t have to be a fleeting pleasure. With a little planning[Read More…]
An Ode to the Dreaded Deer Fly
WHITE RIVER JUNCTION – Everyone knows the deer fly–but do you really know the deer fly? With approximately 29 species in the genus Chrysops in Vermont, there is a lot to know. For example, larvae can live up to three years as decomposers and predators in water, and the eyes[Read More…]
